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rpodric avatar image
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rpodric asked rpodric answered

Office 365 updates lately are larger and slower for no apparent reason

Starting with 16.0.13707.20008 (ProPlus, Win10 Preview) in the first half of January, build updates involve much more downloading and thus time than they ever had before in my years of updating Office C2R builds.

After this happened with several updates in a row over a few weeks, I measured what was downloaded each time: around 3.4GB. That's basically the entire client, as if I'd installed from scratch.

What happened to smart, differential-style updating?

I happen to have a way to see what the bandwidth was historically (earlier months) for these updates: roughly half what they are now, consistently.

So I tested on another PC: also about twice what it should be.

The "Host Process for Windows Services," which is what does the downloading from what I can tell, just isn't as efficient as it used to be, but why?

office-itpro
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emilyhua-msft avatar image
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emilyhua-msft answered

@rpodric

So far I don’t find any Microsoft document says that update-style for Microsoft 365 Apps is changed.

How did you download the updates?
Such as using ODT with configuration file (.xml file) or using the scheduled task named “Office Automatic Updates 2.0 ”.

Where do you download the updates from?
Such as the default location, CDN (Office Content Delivery Network).

Did you update Office across versions or level by level?
If you are updating from an older release to the current release, your download size could be larger.
The size of the updates that are downloaded to the user's computer from the update location varies depends on several factors, including how long it’s been since you last updated Office and how many security and quality updates there are.


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rpodric avatar image
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rpodric answered

I'm just talking about triggering updates manually via File/Account in an office app such as Word. That initiates an Office-wide update immediately.

In each case, it's just the last build of the same Office product to the current one. The cadence is the same as always, and in the case of the Beta Channel no longer than one week.

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rpodric answered

Continues through:

Office 365 (16.0.13811.20002)

Windows 10 (21313)

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rpodric avatar image
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rpodric answered

Continues through (I list both because I don't really know which is the cause):

Office 365 (16.0.13819.20006)

Windows 10 (21318)

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emilyhua-msft avatar image
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emilyhua-msft answered

@rpodric
How did you check the size of Office updates?
Please refer to "How to check the size of this month's Office ProPlus update".

If there is any security software, it is recommended to temporarily disable it. You may also perform a Office online repair from Control Panel to check this issue.


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rpodric avatar image
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rpodric answered emilyhua-msft commented

Yes, in multiple ways (Task Manager, Networx, router, etc), as I always have. That's not in question.

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@rpodric
Could you plase check this issue on other versions of Windows? Such as 20H2.
I test on my environment, the update from Version 2103 (Build 13811.20002) to Version 2103 (Build 13827.20004), the Process Monitor shows the result as following image.
73726-capture8.png


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capture8.png (25.8 KiB)
rpodric avatar image
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rpodric answered

Which process were you monitoring? 272MB is way too low, even when it's working normally, so it must not have been the complete picture of what happens OR some of it had already downloaded by the time you noticed the update was available.

If I tried another version of Windows (and installation of Office), and it was fine, then what would that reveal about what the problem could be? I'm looking for ideas on what might have changed to start this problem, since then I might have a chance at fixing it. I'm sure it went from years of not doing this to suddenly always doing it for a good reason, and I suspect something about Windows itself.

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rpodric avatar image
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rpodric answered

Just to update: it continues through 16.0.13919.20002.

I think somehow whatever does the updating (it appears to be "Host Process for Windows Services") simply has been instructed to do a full-style update rather than what it needs. If I could find where that setting is (probably the Registry), then I'd be back on track.

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rpodric avatar image
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rpodric answered

Seemingly proving that it never had anything to do with Windows, the situation magically reverted to normal with 16.0.13929.20016 and continued optimally with 16.0.14002.20000, so it wasn't a fluke.

As the problem began with no explanation, it apparently ended the same way.

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